A New Little One

For the last 6 days I have been enjoying the sounds, smells and joys of having a brand new tiny little life to take care of. Belén Joy joined our family Tuesday August 16th. She was healthy and beautiful at 7 lbs. 13 oz and 19 1/2 inches tall.

I was induced being 6 days over due, and everything went well and smoothly. After weeks of on and off labor, we found out that I just had so much fluid in me that she could never really drop low enough to engage in full blown labor. When I walked around, gravity would help out and we'd have labor and be miserable. As soon as I laid down at night or any other time, she would float away and labor would stop. It wasn't until they broke the water that she finally came quickly.

It's always amazing to me what an incredible thing it is to give birth and to create a new life. To be amazed at her tiny little perfect body that has all the amazing, miraculous systems and functions. To me there is no greater truth and testimony of a supreme being and creator than to see a brand new baby laid on my stomach and to sit in wonder over the next week at how truly amazing creation is. There truly is a God, and I'm always humbled at every birth, that I get to be a part of his amazing work.

Since then I have enjoyed her newness. Her fresh smells, her jerky movements, her open bird mouth, her desire to suck on everything, her hours and hours of sleeping. She has been perfect. She's only cried 3 times that I can count in the last 6 days. Right when she was born, once while changing a diaper, and the other day when they poked her foot for the 3rd jaundice test. Even at night when it's time to eat she just makes little noises trying to search for her food. We will see how long that lasts.

The kids can literally not get enough of her. They are constantly battling for "their" time to hold her. She didn't get much sleep the first day, because they kept waking her, wanting to hold her, touching her, and just being smitten with her. Isaac has been the most smitten. Savannah, just wants to be a little mother to her, which I happy about. She'll be a great help to me. The last 4 days they went home to Star Valley with Beau, to see his brother who just arrived home from his mission. So she's been able to have at least 4 days of peace, quiet and rest, before they return once again to smother her with love.

It was also a unique time, as Beau and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary in the hospital. (Keep in mind the circumstances of this picture and why we look so amazing. :)) Time has flown so fast, as we looked back at all that has happened in 9 years. We realize how truly blessed we have been. We have been taken care of so well, and have had so many wonderful opportunities and experiences. The greatest one being our 5 wonderful children. Families are really what is all about and I am so thankful for mine. I am always amazed at how I could not have picked a more perfect man to marry and have be a part of my life. He is amazing in every way, and every day I love him more. I can say that the last 9 years have been the happiest of my life, and I know we only have many more amazing ones to come and that makes me so excited.

Life is good. It is beautiful and there is so much to enjoy and look forward to. I hope to slow down, and fully enjoy each of these moments, and those things that really matter the most.

What do you do while waiting.

We are still waiting for this baby. Five days past due and definitely teaching us patient. It has been rather frustrating. There have been days of full labor contractions to make you miserable all day long, feeling like she might actually arrive that day, to only have them stop when I go to sleep at night, not to return for another day or so. So what do you do while waiting?

You build a tree house in your backyard. Ok I didn't build the treehouse, my amazing husband did. I was impressed. He got it all finished in two days, here you see it in the works and already being used and played on with the kids. It has been a great way to get them outside. I love looking out and seeing Mirian up their coloring, or Savannah reading her books. You hear excitement and adventure as they are all up there in their own creative worlds living out an adventure ad midst the trees.

It's something I've wanted for a while, and Beau realized he had enough scrap wood around that he could throw one together. So while feeling a need for a break, helping out at home on those days of never ending contractions, he got to work, and now we have a little bit of heaven in a tree.

My favorite part? Finding my husband sitting up there in the evenings in the peace and quiet just sitting. (I have yet to attempt to climb the rope ladder at 9 months pregnant to enjoy the view myself... hopefully here soon I can join him.)

Scrapping for Me

It always seems that once I finish a huge design project all I want to do is scrap for myself. To scrap for the fun of just creating a layout to remember those great times as a family. Lately I've been resorting back to the 4x6 size. I love it because it's so cheap to print .13 cents instead of $1.25. I can buy a huge 4x6 album, and just slide them in the sleeves. Lately though I've been doing them as a two page spread. I LOVE it this way. I feel like I can get quite a bit recorded about an event and show off quite a few photos in the process. Here are three recent ones I've done.

Caitlyn's Third Birthday

A Ward Campout. I'm also trying to go back a few years for memories that I haven't ever recorded about but I know my kids would love seeing the pictures and reading about them.

The Stake Picnic - 2011

They go really fast and quick and I feel like I'm making some progress on recording our every day life, which is the stuff I want to remember.

My husband is wanting to relax for the evening, so I'll have to post supplies later. If you want to know where something is from leave a comment and I'll get that info to you! :)

Carnival Night

Every year our stake (large church organization of 6 smaller congregations) have a summer picnic. I would call it more of a carnival. It's one of the highlights of the summer for the kids. They have a huge BBQ with hamburgers, hotdogs, watermelon, salads and chips. Then the night is spent enjoying the activities. (The best part is they are all free instead of carnival prices!)

Snow cones and cotton candy for anyone that wants them.... There's something so good about cotton candy.

Then there is the face painting, which my girls had been looking forward to all day.

Then there were the handmade rockets. Isaac lives for this activity. They have a table where you make your own rocket out of paper, and then they have these pvc pipe rocket lauchers that are hooked up to air compressors. The kids push the rocket down on them, release the valve switch and watch their rockets shoot 100 ft. in the sky. Of course you have to try catching it on the way down.

A girl had brought her two ferrets which my kids immediately had to go check out.

There was also volleyball, a 10 foot beach ball to kick around, playgroud equipment, caricature drawing, and entertainment going on. My kids were in heaven. It was also great being able to socialize with the amazing people we have in our stake. I have come to love them so much.

Unfortunately Beau either had some serious reaction to the smoke created from the burgers he was helping cook, or something got in his eye. He was in serious pain, and couldn't open it or move it without it killing him.... which led me to the 24 hour grocery store at 3 am in the morning to find any and all remedies that could possible help the guy out. It seemed to help and he could at least keep it open most of the next day. Today it's almost looking normal again.

We spent Saturday at a family reunion and spending quite some time afterwards visiting with one of Beau's cousins. It's always fun to see family, and I love getting together with Beau's side of the family. It was a packed weekend but one we really enjoyed!

Pure Thrills

What I love about this boy is that he is soooo easy to please. He can get a kick over just the smallest things. Today he wanted to spend his dollar that is burning a hole in his pocket, and ended up getting this plane at the dollar store. He is in love with paper airplanes. His uncle Jared had a wind up one that he thought was the coolest thing in the world. Today he had to settle for just a styrofoam one, that has gotten stuck on the roof twice, in the tree 3 times, and according to him does amazing tricks and loop de loops. Boy this kid makes me smile.

Weekend Goodness

I hope you were able to enjoy your father's day weekend. We had a really good one! We enjoyed celebrating Father's day with this amazing father. I honestly had no idea when I decided to marry him what an amazing dad he would be. I have been too blessed to end up with him.

We were trying to decide what to do as a surprise for Father's Day. Friday after a whole day of feeling behind in cleaning and getting anything done in the house, and trying to get kids motivated to clean, I came up with an idea. I got the kids together and told them I thought of something that dad would really, really love for Father's Day. There are (a minimum) of three things that drive him absolutely crazy to have dirty. His Bedroom, the car, and yard. (Like I said these are just a few I'm sure... :)) But all three of those have needed some major care lately. Being 32 weeks pregnant and trying to get other things done, it has just kept getting pushed to the side. There's nothing like a good reason like a surprise to motivate all in the house. We had about 3 hours to tackle all three. We barely made it (except for getting the car actually vacumed). The kids actually did really well helping on all three projects rather than moaning and groaning about it the whole time.

When we finished we sent him on a treasure hunt with clues to the three spots. You've never seen the kids so excited to show him what they had done and to see how happy he was. They felt like they were giving him the world. On Father's Day they picked up the front room really fast to surprise him before his special dinner, and during the pick up Savannah and Mirian were trying to explain to me why dad loved his present so much. Not only was he happy because they were all clean but "Because he knows when we have a clean house, we are happy too! He loves having a happy family" as the other chimed in "because we can feel the spirit when the house is clean and it makes us all happy!" (They might have learned something yet.)

So we were able to enjoy some time together as a family that evening, and then we were able to have a date together on Saturday. We decided to hit a movie at the dollar theatre and chose to see Soul Surfer.

What a great movie. We loved it. Lately I've gotten really tired of all the crap that's in movies lately. I hear a review about a movie and I go look it up on Kids in Mind to find out what exactly is in it to give it the rating, and think... why do I want to see or hear this stuff? So I've really enjoyed it when I get to watch a good uplifting movie. Ones that are usually based on true stories. But really.... I want to hear more of these stories. We have tons of people that have lived amazing lives, gone through incredible and very difficult things. Stories of real people that are more inspiring and can teach us more than some high tech movie from Hollywood. Why aren't we sharing more of these stories out there? If any of you have any suggestions for movies like this I'd LOVE to hear them.

Do anything fun or memorable for your Father's Day? I hope all you fathers out there had an amazing one.

Letting the to do list go

Recently I have tried REALLY hard to not say the phrases "in a minute" or "I can't right now," to my kids if i am pushing them off for my "to do list". I realize that too often I push them off for later and am missing the "nows." Today was one of those moments. I'm behind on laundry, my bedroom still needs cleaning up, fix it projects and designs projects were calling. I even invited friends to come over to play with the kids so I could get something done.

Savannah came up to me after lunch and asked if we could do something together. I opened my mouth to give her excuses, or ask her to wait till later till I had finished this, this and this.... and luckily stopped myself. I asked her what she was thinking and she gave me a few ideas. I've known that I have really needed to give Savannah more personal time lately to see how it affected behavior, general happiness, etc. I knew this moment was her asking for that personal time.

A few weeks ago I asked my kids to pick one thing they wanted to learn how to do this summer and we would spend some time each week learning how to do it. Savannah picked sewing, Mirian cooking and Isaac picked learning how to ride his bike without training wheels.

Savannah asked if we could learn how to sew today. In my mind I thought... "oh not now, that takes lots of time to learn how to do that, and we have friends showing up in 10 minutes." But I held my tongue, agreed, and we set out our plan. She has wanted to learn how to sew on the sewing machine. I figured a easy quilt would be the easiest. Squares and straight lines. So I let her pick some fabric from some of my sheets I've cut up.

I taught her how to use the rotary cutter and cutting board and how to measure her squares so they were the same size. She decided she wanted to throw some strips in there as well instead of just squares. I helped her with fabric that was a bit too long for her to reach all by herself, and let her cut out all her squares. She did a great job.

I then had her take all her pieces and lay them all on the floor in a pattern she would like. I tried to encourage her to make both a pattern vertically and horizontally, and she went to work. It was fun watching her change colors, rearrange them, and finally declared that this is how she wanted her quilt to look. I have to keep the obsessive compulsive part of me under control when it comes to visual colors, patterns etc, and let her be herself. She did really good for her age. It was unique but had some pattern still to it.

I then had her find matching markers and draw her quilt on the paper and color in the different squares so she would know the order to sew them in. She drew it all in, got it all planned, put all her squares together and then went and started pulling out the sewing machine without me realizing it. :)

(see her pattern there on top?)

So I showed her how to thread the machine, set it up, and sew a straight line. She was a little nervous at first, but did really good about sewing straight. I then showed her how to follow her pattern, how to put the right sides together and start sewing her squares into strips. She was nervous at first, but ended up becoming a pro. She has some advantages to having Beau's analytical and systematic mind when it comes to organizing things. She easily could understand following the pattern, and figured out how to mark squares off when she finished them. She figured out how to sew her thin strips together, and ended up finishing up all her strips by the end of the night. Tomorrow she gets to iron them out and sew the strips to finish her top.

The best part was seeing how proud she was of herself. She was so excited to show Beau that she was using the sewing machine all by herself, and that she was making a quilt all by herself. It was worth everything I didn't get done to see the confidence she had in herself, how excited she was, and what a great job she was actually doing. She was sewing really really well (skill wise). I had some young women ages 12- 14 that I was trying to teach how to sew that did not do near as well as she did. She was bummed when she messed up one time during the whole thing and we had to unpick two squares. The only other thing she was bummed about was that she couldn't get the whole thing done tonight so she could sleep with it. I had to try and explain to her that this was a long p project, that we still had to put the batting in, quilt or tie it, put the binding on etc. But I can't wait to see how excited she is when she finishes it completely.

I was also excited to see how well she did. She also mentioned how a couple of months she sewed some headbands by hand and embroidered her friends names on top to give to them. She explained that one girls was really excited and happy about it and wore it all day. The other one didn't really like it, shoved it in her backpack and never looked at it again, while commenting to someone else that she wanted something different instead. Savannah mentioned how that made her feel really bad. She had spent all night sewing it by hand, and had given up all her free time to make it for her friend, and then to have her not want it. It was a great chance to discuss how the two different girls made her feel, and how we need to be careful how we react to people when they do nice things for us like that. Do we show that we are appreciate of it, and help them feel good, or do we make them feel sad about all the time and effort they put into creating it. What a great time for life lessons not only in physical homemaking skills, but people and life skills too.

Now I just need to give her some more training and I can start getting her to sew all these projects I never have time to do!

Enjoy these Little Things

One thing I've been trying to do this summer is just relax and enjoy my kids. I've been looking forward to the time when they would be home from school and we could just spend time together. So despite the fact that MY bedroom STILL has not gotten clean, I can say I've enjoyed my kids. Here's a few of the things that I've been enjoying lately.

• The summer reading program - going to the library for books and some of their summer activities. I actually finished one of my 5 summer reading books for the adult summer reading program... let's see if I can get another 4 done. :)

• Mormon Channel - (www.mormonchannel.org) Lately the kids and I have found ourselves listening to it on a regular almost daily basis. There is enough variety that I can usually find something I'm in the mood to listen to, it's always uplifting, and I've learned some really great stuff. Savannah lately has been turning it on to the Friend Preview (a preview of the children's magazine put out by the church.) It's a mixture of stories from the friend, quotes and talks by the apostles, and music. It's short for their attention span, is about 20 minutes, and we have been listening to it while eating lunch, sitting around, Sunday mornings, etc. My kids love it. I personally have enjoyed these specific interviews recently.

• Personal Revelation with Julie B. Beck
• Creating and Sustaining Wellness a look at overall health
• Music with a Message
• Friend Magazine Preview

• Watching my kids be kids.
• Sew Liberated A new book I got for my birthday. (Thanks Heather) I've been getting excited about doing a few projects for it for the new baby.
• Your Child's Weight; Helping without harming. A book that I've been reading and trying to implement after it's high recommendation from a workshop I attended years ago at the BYU Women's conference. It's about developing healthy family eating habits without being extreme on both sides with food. I needed something to help my kids be healthy and develop healthy eating habits. In it I learned a lot about the way I eat, which has actually helped me realize those issues, and in being 7 months pregnant, I have not put on any extra weight so far, (being that I was already over-weight to begin with.) But I have stayed at a low healthy weight gain for my current weight, and hope to maintain that so when the baby goes, the lbs go with it.
• Grilled Chicken Salad with feta, fresh corn and blueberries. Tried this yummy recipe last night and enjoyed it. Even Beau didn't think it was too bad. I'm anxious to try out some of the Marlboro Man approved recipes as I think some would definitely appeal to my husband.

So there is a taste of some of my favorites lately... and finally the sunshine that has decided to appear. It's finally feeling like summer.

Finally Summer

May was a really rough month for me. Unexpected family things happened that has had me only focusing on things that really matter and dropping a lot of things for a while. I have learned a lot though. Isn't that what all the hard things are about sometimes, making us really stretch and grow?

After months and months of rain, snow and cold, it's finally starting to feel like summer here this last week. It's been beautiful sunny days, beautiful temperatures and we are officially out on summer vacation. I have been looking forward to this for months. I have lots of things planned for the kiddos and hope to really enjoy this summer. The baby is growing, moving lots and it's hard to believe that she will be the culminating event of the summer. Time has flown.

Our camera also broke which has left me with no visual way of documenting our life for the last few months or so. It's been driving me crazy and I realized I just can't seem to blog unless there are photos. I'm a visual blogger by far. I loved my old camera. It was just a point and shoot but took great photos. We finally got a new one the other day, same camera just the newer version and I am pumped to play around with it, and start documenting the little things going on, and the fun I'm having with my kids.

Allergy season has suddenly attacked in full fury for me. Savannah and I have been so miserable. I forgot how miserable it is. Seeing cotton blowing from the trees right now is almost horrifying. The things you have to deal with when the sun begins to shine.

Despite the itchy eyes, congestion and constant sneezing, we are going to enjoy our summer days and I hope to have this blog filled with the daily happenings of our life. Life is too good right now not to enjoy every moment of it.

Down to Two.

 

 

I did it. Officially I am probably the meanest mom in the world. I declared to my children last night that this morning I was going in their rooms and bagging EVERYTHING UP. They would be able to pick out one toy and one dress up outfit and the rest were being put into boxes or bags and being shipped out of the house. (Only twenty feet to the garage) The ironic part is my husband asked the other night if I’m an all or nothing sort of person…. well as of today I guess I am.

Two things. They have a week or two to show me that they can take care of these two items, put them away where they go, pick them up after they are done, and take care of them.  If they can’t, then they are stuck with just two for a while. If they can, then they can slowly take one more item out at a time and show me they can be responsible for a few more.
photo by Meddygarnet  

Why?

This mommy is tired of tripping over everything to get into rooms. Tired of demanding, threatening, bribing and finally just cleaning it herself.  I’m tired of seeing how I am creating terrible habits in my children, and expecting very little from them. Yes they are small, yes they aren’t adults, and yet I see that I am doing a HUGE disservice to them by not teaching them how to take care of things, put things away, and be responsible. I’m doing a huge disservice by doing it for them sometimes because it it’s just faster.

In reality they are small and I’m making it almost entirely impossible to help them l

earn

this by giving them LOTS of toys. More toys than they can handle and manage, and so many toys that it completely OVERWHELMES them. Especially when it comes to cleaning them and putting them away. It OVERWHELMES me!  Just trying to figure out how to organize things, how to make it easier for them to put things away and take care of it. How to help them want to take care of it.  It’s just plain tiring and all the other ways have just not worked. 

photo by erin MC hammer

So we’re going with this tactic. The method of “choices and accountability” and being good “stewards”.   I’m still going to let them keep the two items I mentioned, so they don’t have a complete meltdown and so they can prove to me by how they choose to take care o

f these two things, whether or not they are accountable enough to take care of more.

They are little, they need to learn how to be responsible for a few things at a time.  Doesn’t the Lord do the same thing with us? He give us a small stewardship with the promise that if we take care of it then more will be added upon it. They don’t know the satisfaction of taking care of that one toy especially well, because it’s the only one they have and if it gets ruined they have nothing.  They need to start small, with something that is within reach and totally attainable and go from there.

So will I be back in a few days saying this completely failed? Who knows maybe. Are they going to go nuts. I don’t think so.  They might complain but it’s summer they have the outdoors to go run and play in, they still have crayons and markers and things to draw with, and I have other things I want to do and teach them. Maybe it will be a blessing in disguise.  As my husband asked last night as he raised his eyebrow at my declaration. “Hmm… Who is going to give in first?”  We shall see and I’ll let you know in a day or two how it is going.

Designer’s Life

A couple of times a year we have the opportunity to write an article for the ScrapGirls newsletter. Today was my turn. I know this is a theme I’ve already talked about on here, but I thought I’d share the article with you anyway.

 

 

It's Time to Take Care of Me

 

During a class recently, someone said to make sure to get enough water and sleep. She encouraged us to take care of ourselves physically, so that we can be the best that we can be.

I agreed with her and didn't think much more about it - until later. She had given us some questions in class to ponder and, as I sat down to really think about them, I realized I couldn't even think. I realized how tired I was, how much my back and head hurt, and just how terrible I was feeling physically. I had been getting to bed late at night and still trying to get up really early in the morning. Many of those nights I had been woken up by children, too. I had been eating terrible in contrast to a few weeks ago when I was only eating good, wholesome food and my body could feel it.

Suddenly, the comments about making sure I was drinking water and getting enough sleep became significant. I realized how little importance I gave to making sure that my physical body is being taken care of more than anything else. I need to be giving all my time and energy to making sure that I'm eating well, getting to bed early, drinking lots of water, exercising and giving my body a break.

I realized that by not doing so, I was only able to do things half-heartedly rather than giving my best and my absolute all. I couldn't be creative because my mind couldn't even think, let alone come up with creative ideas and solutions. My temperament was short with my children, which could lead to lots of other problems. My spiritual side was suffering because I would fall asleep during prayers or scripture study, or only give a half-hearted attempt. Mentally, I was not there fully. Physically, I was running on low gas. I did not have the energy to do all I needed to do, but also to just play and have fun. I was also feeling side effects like headaches, back pains and the consequences of poor eating habits. My emotional side was running really strong. It seemed to get stronger when I was tired and run down - every problem, decision or response was bigger than it needed to be.

Everything was lacking and only done in a half-hearted way because I had neglected to take care of my body. This physical body has a much bigger role and importance in our life than we give it. We try to push it beyond what it can do. We abuse it and don't give it the care it needs. We don't give it rest and somehow expect that by doing all this we should be performing at our absolute best.

No more, I decided. Taking care of this physical body MUST become first in my priorities - the very first. I cannot give my best and my all to my family until I do. I cannot love God with all my heart and develop a strong spiritual life if I don't. I can't be creative and really develop my talents and come up with new ideas if I don't. Plus, I won't live a long life if I don't. I cannot be the best me until this physical body is taken care of.

My priorities have changed. I am trying to go to bed early, so I can rise early. I have been exercising every day to build and strengthen my body, but also to hopefully maintain a healthier weight. I am trying to be more conscious about what food I am putting into my mouth and how much I eat. I am trying to make sure I drink lots and lots of water.

The result? I am already starting to feel better. I am seeing a difference. I am more patient with my children. I'm not an emotional time bomb. I'm not as stressed. I have felt my spiritual side improve. I feel like I'm being a better me, a better mother, wife, disciple, friend and artist.

Do I succeed at this every day? No. Some days, I still stay up really late with my husband and feel the consequences the next day. Some days, I still eat junk food and feel it in my system. Some days, I add too much to my plate and stress myself out.

The difference though? I'm finally aware of it. I'm finally aware of what my body is telling me. It's about time - time to take care of me, so I can take care of them.

My favorite product I have designed: Holy Night Collection

 

 

For many reasons, this will probably always be my favorite collection. When I created it, I wanted to create a collection about the real and true meaning of Christmas. I wanted it to have the feel of the sacred and incredible event that it was. While designing, it was one of the few kits that I've ever done that flowed easily from beginning to end and it turned out better than I ever hoped. It is the only kit where I got to truly share a huge part of myself, my faith and my love for the Lord, together in a finished collection. It's also the only collection I didn't care whether or not I sold any. I created it for Him, in recognition of what happened that Holy Night in Bethlehem and what is truly the most important thing in this world - the gift of His son.
 

Being a Kid

Yesterday I realized we needed to get out. It’s been getting cooler, school is going on and so we’ve made our way inside a little too much.  Before we know it there will be snow on the ground and we will really be stuck inside so we need to take advantage of the chance to be outside while we can. I’ve also been feeling a need to get in some nature and out of the city.So we drove up the canyon to see the falls, and let the kids be kids and let mom breathe in some fresh air and enjoy the beauty that I don’t take advantage of enough. I love this time of year with all the changing colors.   The kids ran, played, got dirty, climbed and enjoyed just being kids.  There’s nothing like sheer enjoyment on their faces, hearing lots of laughter, and seeing them run all over the place. There was this little ravine they would climb up and then slide down on, over and over again. They thought it was so funny that their bottoms were getting dirtier and dirtier.     Caitlyn ate it up too.  Throwing rocks in the water, climbing on things, running, and just having the time of her life.  What a great way to spend the afternoon.  Tomorrow – a  picnic up the canyon again.Isaac must have worn himself out too much, because later that night he caught the stomach flu from his two sisters who had it yesterday.  There’s nothing like making you a real mom until you’ve been thrown up on a time or too. You never turn into a real dad either until your kid throws up 2 or 3 times in public at the Chiropractor clinic and in the car on the ride home. 

So today?  Relaxing and getting a few kids better so we can enjoy some fall colors tomorrow.